WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – The Manhattanville men's basketball team, receiving votes in this week's D3Hoops.com Division III National Poll, came back from eight points down in the second half to force overtime and eventually sneaked away with a hard-fought 76-75 (OT) victory over King's (Pa.) College in a tense Freedom Conference contest on Saturday afternoon at Scandlon Gymnasium.
The Valiants were up a pair at 67-65 with two minutes remaining in regulation, but back-to-back jumpers from King's senior Kevin Conroy put the home team back in front with 1:20 left in the clock. After a Manhattanville timeout, the visitors missed a chance to tie the score but received a big break when the Monarchs' Mike McCready missed a pair of free throws that might have put the game out of reach – a theme of the day for the home team.
Blessed with a second chance in the final 30 seconds, senior Trevoy Pointer (Dallas, Texas) nailed a jumper with 14 ticks left on the clock to knot the score at 69-all. The Monarchs had one chance left after calling a timeout with six seconds remaining, but the Valiants forced a turnover and Pointer could not hit a subsequent desperation three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.
Headed into extra time, both teams did not connect on their first possession, but after Conroy scored the first two points of the session with a jumper, junior Glen Rodriguez (Ponce, Puerto Rico) came back the other way to lay the ball in to re-tie the score at 71-all with 3:27 left. Two more points from Conroy at the line gave the Monarchs the lead back again, but this time it was junior Felipe Vargas (Miami, Fla.) draining a huge shot from beyond the arc, which put Manhattanville in front by a point (74-73) with 3:04 left.
A free throw by Valiant senior Peter Mehmel (Queens, N.Y.) and two by King's forward Chris Hobson knotted the score at 75-75, and after Vargas missed a three-pointer for Manhattanville down the other end, Mehmel came up with a huge offensive rebound and was fouled to head to the line. The senior made the second of two attempts from the stripe with 34 seconds left to give the Valiants the lead, setting up the Monarchs for one final dramatic possession with a chance to win the game. The home team had a pair of shots to take the lead, but shots by Kyle Stackhouse and Conroy did not fall and junior Brian Bertucci (Gibbsboro, N.J.) grabbed the game-clinching rebound with two seconds on the clock to secure the victory for the Valiants.
Pointer continued to provide a consistent number on the offensive end for Manhattanville, tying for the game-high with 19 points on 8-of-19 shooting. Mehmel was perfect from the field on the way to narrowly missing a double-double with 17 points and a game-high nine rebounds, while Vargas also had his best offensive day of the year with 13 points in 26 minutes.
King's was led offensively by Conroy, who tied Pointer for the game-high with his 19 points, while junior Nick Reisig added 16 points and sophomore Matt Fiorino chipped in 10 for the home team in a losing effort.
Manhattanville shot 45.2 percent (28 for 62) from the field on the day, but was also helped by 15-of-21 shooting from the charity stripe – including 9 of 12 in the second half. King's, meanwhile, was frustrated for periods on the offensive end, finishing up at only 38.1 percent (24 for 63) from the field - including just 1 of 6 in overtime. But perhaps more importantly, King's shot just 20 of 32 (62.5 percent) from the free-throw line, a figure that ultimately came back to haunt the home team in the end.
The Valiants came out strong to begin the contest, using an early 11-0 run to take a 15-6 lead 7:25 into the game. But King's came back with some offensive pressure of its own, eventually taking back the lead and building up a seven-point advantage that was trimmed to four (35-31) on a three by senior Lamar Glass headed into the break.
The second half featured multiple lead changes, as the home team took an eight-point lead early in the frame only to have the visitors come back to take a seven-point edge with 7:44 left on the clock. But two quick three-pointers by Reisig got King's right back into the game, and the teams stayed within one possession of each other for the final six minutes of regulation and all of overtime.
Manhattanville (6-1, 2-0 Freedom) will return home on Thursday night, as the Valiants host Baruch College in a non-conference contest at Kennedy Gym starting at 7 p.m. GoValiants.TV will have the live video feed from courtside starting at 6:50 p.m. King's (2-4, 0-2 Freedom) hosts Penn State-Hazleton on Tuesday at 8 p.m.